Word: loner
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Maverick, loner, outcast, a "voice in the woods": all these words describe a courageous, gallant senator who stuck to his principles when they were anathema to his party and to much of the nation. Weicker's forced departure proves that the Republican party, even in its triumph, is unwilling to accept opposing views, and this only limits further the number of Americans they can claim to represent...
...motivation to make the national water-polo team (he was a four-time All-American at Berkeley), stay with it and compete at Barcelona in 1992. In any case, the racing career of this big, likable man was blazing to a close. He is a social fellow in a loner's sport, and the relays have given him the comradeship he needs. As swimming wound down, he anchored the U.S. 4 X 100 free relay team (Chris Jacobs, Troy Dalbey and Tom Jager were the other members) in an event the U.S. has not lost in modern times. That kind...
Jackson likes to talk in rhyme and think in metaphor; Dukakis is as poetic as a slide rule. Jackson, the college quarterback, is a scrambler, an improviser, a mixer; Dukakis, the college runner, is essentially a loner who learned the Greek monos mou (by myself) as his first words. Jackson sweats, gestures, emotes, preaches when giving a speech. Dukakis uses a terminal monotone and metronomic motions. Where Dukakis is cerebral and calculating, Jackson is visceral and physical. During a joint appearance in New York, as Jackson succeeded Dukakis at the lectern, the Governor shook hands as they passed. That...
These scenes carry hints that Redford wants to update some classic movie parables. Milagro could be Chinatown, with its diverted water supply and political-industrial intrigue. Or Silkwood, with a heroic loner fatally bucking the system. Or The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, with the greedy Anglos outsmarted by wily Hispanic outlaws who snort, "We don't need no stinkin' condos...
Erdman, a former banker in Switzerland, knows all the tricks of pecuniary titillation. The main characters are all endowed with big bottom lines. Short, grubby Danny Lehman, the dubious hero, parlays his assets into fantasies of opulence, power and sex. Lehman is a loner who outwits the law and organized crime and favors the company of a hooker who reads Dostoyevsky. All things considered, he is more appealing than the run-of-the-mill Sammy Glick. Erdman's knowledge about money laundering and creative financing firmly establishes the novel's authority. An unabashed weakness for shady operators and a hearty...